Dear Hulu: You Have a Problem

Dear Hulu: I’m intervening because I care. We’ve had some good times together, but if you continue down the road you’re on, you are going to die. What am I talking about? I think you know. I’m talking about your asinine leadership, including such figures as Chase “Diarreah of the Mouth” Carey and Rupert “I Lost $4.3 Billion This Year” Murdoch. These people are not helping you, Hulu. These people are hurting you. Maybe even killing you…

On Sharing (Licenses, Copyrights, and Fair Use)

You may not realize this from scanning my site, but I was this close (envision thumb and pointer finger nearly touching) to pursuing a career in intellectual property law.   I even went so far as to take the LSAT, enroll in a pre-law seminar, and participate in a semester-long legal internship.
I’ll spare you the gory [...]

Why Google Worries Me

Who doesn’t love Google? Between search, Gmail, Google Docs, YouTube, Google News, iGoogle, Google Maps – chances are that you interact with something “google” everyday. But have you really stopped to ponder what kind of company Google is? Maybe not, which is I’m writing this article. Google provides some brilliantly useful services, but like any major company their huge reach and ubiquity lends itself to some worrisome possibilities. Read on to learn more about the new Google and their potentially problematic plans for the future…

Where does Microsoft make its money?

Ever wondered which of Microsoft’s product divisions are most profitable? I certainly have, so today I took the time to actually compile formal information on the matter. What follows are graphs and explanations of Microsoft’s 2008 revenue, including specific information for each division…

Linux vs. Windows Hardware Support: The Truth

If you’ve heard of Linux, you’ve probably also heard the following comment (or something like it):
Linux won’t be ready for mainstream use until it “just works.”
Or maybe:
I wanted to like Linux, but after installing it my (insert hardware) and (insert hardware) and (insert hardware) didn’t work.
Some are even so elegant as to say it like [...]

Desktop Linux + Portable Hard Drive + PS3 = HD-DVR

This weekend I finally took the time to get MythTV running on my HP Media Center PC (under Ubuntu Linux). For those who don’t know, MythTV is a free Linux application which turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital multimedia home entertainment system, or home theater PC. MythTV is quite the application. Honestly, it’s a bit daunting at first – there are a TON of options/features, much more than are probably necessary. (But you know Linux – someone somewhere has probably made use of every one of those obscure settings…) Despite this, the community documentation for getting MythTV up and running with my TV card was exceptional…

New external SATA hard drive not working? Try this.

Sometimes I love Google, and sometimes I hate it.
I recently purchased a Playstation 3 (GTA4 is superb, btw) and it didn’t take me long to realize that upgrading the 80gb hard drive would be worth a bit of time and spare change.  As such, I picked up a new hard drive and swapped it into [...]

Think video games make kids antisocial? Think again.

As an adult male who enjoys the occasional video game, I find myself constantly having to justify this choice of entertainment to other adults – you know, the ones that claim video games are “evil,” “a waste of time,” “anti-social,” “satanic,” etc.  These arguments usually consist of the other adults name-calling gamers while I explain [...]

Ah, the complexities of English

(Originally seen at http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2008/07/then-well-grab.html)

I’ve been very much enjoying the Olympics over the last several days, and what Olympics would be complete without a healthy dose of Engrish?  This is why babelfish is free!